Tenant lost his job 5 months into 1 yr lease...

[Brian Hoffman]

Hi Awesome people,

I have a 4 bedroom house occupied by three young professionals and one of them recently lost their job. He's interested to move out due to lack of funding, but they are a few months into a one year lease. Unfortunately I did not include an early termination clause in the lease. I believe the other two housemates would like to stay, so one solution is for them to find a substitute and allow the unemployed to move on. 

Any thoughts on this? 

• Is it appropriate to toss the lease, or should I hold him to the agreement?
• Should I charge a fee for changing the lease? 
• Should I start a new 1 yr lease? 
• Any recommendations on the deposit/cleaning topic?
• Any loose ends you think I may be missing?

I'm sorry, I'm new at this and admittingly not great at it...

[Account Closed]

@Brian Hoffman I think you're spot on with allowing them a substitute (that gets screened/applies just like the others) and allow the unemployed to move on. If they've been good tenants and have been upfront and honest about the situation, no use in kicking the unemployed tenant while they're down.

Inspect the property before the tenant departs. Have the departing tenant fix any items that you and the other tenants believe were the departing tenant's responsibility. Have the remaining tenants sign some form of a Condition of the Premises document stating that they agree to assume responsibility for any additional damages to the property from that point forward; meaning they can't come back at the end of the lease and say "We're not responsible..Bob did that.."